Thoughts on Life, Love, Politics, Hypocrisy and Coming Out in Mid-Life

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Where Life Is Getting Worse for LGBT People

As LGBT Americans gather for Thanksgiving this year, in many cases a pall will color the celebration as we await for the other shoes to fall in the wake of Donald Trump's election and the elevation of homophobes and Christofascists to positions where they can harm and undermine the lives of the LGBT community. Sadly, this trend is not unique to America and defeating it will require renewed resolve and efforts to resist and defeat the pestilence of fundamentalist religion and the hatred that it promotes. As we have seen over and over again, religion is the principle threat to human rights and a never ending justification for evil and hatred. A piece in The Daily Beast looks at the negative, animus inspired trend in other parts of the world. Here are highlights:

The moral arc of
history bends toward justice. Right?

Not necessarily,
especially when it comes to justice for LGBTQ people and other sexual and
gender minorities. Here in the United States, recent gains are now imperiled by
the upcoming Trump presidency. And around the world, there are many places
where, contrary to Dan Savage’s popular video series, it is steadily getting worse.

Consider three
very different examples: Brazil, Indonesia, and Nigeria. Three continents,
three different cultural and religious contexts, different forms of government
with different kinds of leaders. And yet, in all three, a steadily worsening
situation for LGBTQ people.

1. Brazil

For sexual and
gender minorities, Brazil has long experienced the best of times and the worst
of times. The country is cosmopolitan, libertine, and legally progressive, with
laws against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender
identity (SOGI in international human rights parlance).

[A] primary
reason is the export of U.S.-based homophobia. Evangelicals have risen from 5
percent of the Brazilian population in 1970 to nearly 25 percent today, and
their leaders—many trained in the United
States—have exported the U.S. Christian right’s extreme homophobia
to the Brazilian context.

They are also in
Brazil’s congress. The “parliamentary coup” that removed liberal president
Dilma Rousseff from office was accomplished with back-benchers affiliated with
evangelical Christian groups.

Now,
with the conservative government led by Michel Temer (and his all-male cabinet), those factions are
in power. Investigative journalist Joao Ximenes Braga told The Daily Beast that
the Temer government has already shut down human rights programs in the country
and that members of his coalition have called for a repeal of laws protecting
LGBTQ people.

[W]ith Brazil’s
right wing in power, the precarious situation of LGBTQ people in the country is
threatened still further.

2. Indonesia

Indonesia is
half a world away and threatened by right-wing Islam, rather than right-wing
evangelical Christianity—but some of the patterns are eerily familiar.

According to a
recent report by Human
Rights Watch, 2016 has marked a turning point in the country. “Beginning in
January 2016,” the report said, “a series of anti-LGBT public comments by
government officials grew into a cascade of threats and vitriol against LGBT
Indonesians by state commissions, militant Islamists, and mainstream religious
organizations. That outpouring of intolerance has resulted in proposals of laws
which pose a serious long-term threat to the rights and safety of LGBT
Indonesians.”

The severity and swiftness of the
persecution . . . . is particularly surprising for Indonesia, which prides
itself on its moderate form of Islam. In the past, anti-LGBT acts were largely
confined to militant Islamists, even though anti-gay sentiment is widespread.

But
this was different. Government officials
have called for LGBT organizations to be banned from campuses and for LGBT
people to be banned from holding office. One minister called being LGBT “a
disease of the chromosome, and it should be treated.” . . . Meanwhile, a group
of conservative law professors has filed a court case attempting
to force the criminalization of same-sex sexual behavior. A paramilitary
training program with 1.8 million participants declared
homosexuality to be one of the nation’s enemies.

What’s
behind the flareup? Activists say the abrupt shift
in government rhetoric is “cower[ing] in the face of militant Islamists.” And
indeed, the rightward drift in Indonesian political life—not entirely unlike
that in Brazil—appears to be part of the reason for the change in official
rhetoric, with the attendant consequences felt in the streets of Jakarta.
Ironically, Indonesia’s relatively tolerant indigenous form of Islam is being
supplanted by fundamentalist Islam brought in from outside—yet the Islamists
claim to be protecting Indonesian culture.

3. Nigeria

Nigeria is the
most populous nation in Africa, with 173 million people. And in 2014, it passed
one of Africa’s worst anti-gay laws, the so-called Same-Sex Marriage
Prohibition Act.On paper, the
SSMPA merely prohibits anything that could support same-sex marriage. In
reality, however, it’s known as the “Jail the Gays Law” and has been used as a
pretext for horrifying violence, state-sanctioned or state-tolerated, against
LGBTs.

Nor
was the SSMPA a backlash against the United States—or to same-sex marriage,
which no one has advocated for in Nigeria. Rather, Christian LGBT activist
Davis Mac-Iyalla told The Daily Beast, the real battle is religious in nature.
African Anglican Church leaders, “tainted” by the Episcopal Church’s support
for LGBT people, took a hard line in order not to seem more lenient than
Muslims (Sharia governs 12 Nigerian states and punishes homosexuality by
imprisonment, caning, or stoning).

“It
is time the international community take a pause on its relationship with
Nigeria,” Alimi said, “and demand a detailed evaluation of the Nigeria human
rights record as it concerns LGBT people. The picture is more bleak than we
imagined.”

While the husband and I are thankful for the good things in life that we enjoy, we also understand the precarious nature of our rights and safety. Be thankful, but be prepared to fight and resist.

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Out gay attorney in a committed relationship; formerly married and father of three wonderful children; sometime activist and political/news junkie; survived coming out in mid-life and hope to share my experiences and reflections with others.
In the career/professional realm, I am affiliated with Caplan & Associates PC where I practice in the areas of real estate, estate planning (Wills, Trusts, Advanced Medical Directives, Financial Powers of Attorney, Durable Medical Powers of Attorney); business law and commercial transactions; formation of corporations and limited liability companies and legal services to the gay, lesbian and transgender community, including birth certificate amendment.

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